How Well Do You Know Your Tongue?

We’ve all seen dogs with their tongues hanging out of their mouths, but the reason why may surprise you.

This is because during periods of exertion or high temperatures a dog’s tongue increases in size as it exercises due to greater blood flow, and the moisture on the tongue works to cool this blood flow, thus cooling down the dog.

So cut Buster a break next time he’s wagging his tongue more than his tail – he’s just trying to cool off a bit..

10 Facts About The Human Tongue

The tongue is an organ, just like our heart, lungs, kidneys, liver, pancreas, and other essential organs of the human body.

Our tongue is the primary organ of the human body responsible for our sense of taste; there are five elements of how humans perceive taste:

Salty

Sour

Bitter

Sweet

Umami (or Savory)

The tongue also has the astonishing ability to heal faster than any other part of our body, and half of the bacteria found in our mouths is housed on the tongue.

The tongue actually aids in cleaning our teeth after eating, and also plays a major role in our ability to speak.

We all need our tongues to eat, taste, speak, & swallow, but did you now our tongue prints are as unique as our fingerprints?

This is due to variations in size, width, and the amount of taste buds, making each of our tongues as different as a snowflake. The human tongue has on average 3,000 – 10,000 taste buds.

Although sticking our tongue out at someone could certainly be considered childish and offensive, in Tibet sticking out your tongue is a considered a greeting.

Despite the popular debate between tongue rollers and those incapable of doing so, the ability to roll your tongue is NOT genetically determined, studies with identical twins have proven such.

15 More Staggering Stats About The Tongue

Check out the following infographic to see 15 more facts you may not have known about the tongue: